In recent years hand held portable electronic devices (i.e., cell phones, GPS units, portable game consoles, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's)) have become increasingly popular. For example, fifteen years ago cell phones were used by CEO's and business executives to track meetings and stock market performance. Now it is common for every member of a family to have their own cell phone with children as young as 8 or 9 carrying them to school. Moreover, the technology of the portable electronic device has blended. No longer is a cell phone just a cell phone, a PDA just a PDA or a portable hand held game console just for playing personal video games. The technologies are intertwined and a user can now use his “cell phone” to make a phone call, upload pictures, play a video game, track his location using a built in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, surf the Internet, and much more. The use of the personal electronic device has become such a part of personal daily use that it is common for an individual to suffer anxiety if he realizes too late that he has left home and forgotten his cell phone.
An advantage of hand held personal electronic devices is their size and portability. This, however, can also make them difficult to find if the user has set them down. Much like forgetting where the car keys are, the remote control to the television or forgetting where the wallet and check book are, it can be a challenge to always remember the location of the hand held personal electronic device.
Users of personal electronic devices are discovering that mounting devices are very beneficial because they make it easier and more convenient to view the hand held portable electronic device. Prior art mounts are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. The mount also makes it easier to locate the personal electronic device if the user gets used to keeping his device in the mount.
Unfortunately, however, there are problems with prior art mounts. One problem is that prior art mounts are designed to function in a specific single location. For example an indoor stand will not mount appropriately in an automobile and, likewise, a mount for placement in an automobile air vent cannot be used to mount a device on a user's desk. Also, in the prior art mounts are very specific to each individual hand held portable electronic device. For example, a cell phone has a mount that will fit just that type of cell phone. Or a GPS unit has a mount that will work only with that particular type of GPS unit. It then becomes necessary to provide device specific adapters for use with every different style of mobile device. The user is then forced to buy multiple mount adapters for each of his units. Also, modern smart phones and mobile devices are constantly releasing new applications making it necessary for the user to have his mobile device ready and available at all times. There are currently no device mounts that allow for the user to have constant access to his mobile device to accommodate the ever increasing number of software applications.
Additionally, prior art mounts tend to clamp the cell phone in such a manner that buttons and controls on the sides of the cell phone are obscured. Such problems can be seen by referring to U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,744 issued to Richter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,381 issued to Wang et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,194 issue to Marvin, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Each of the mounting devices shown in these prior art patents include clamps that are large and unwieldy and are likely to obscure controls and buttons on the side of a user's cell phone, making it difficult to properly operate the mounted cell phone.
What is needed is a better mount for personal hand held electronic devices.